The safe generation of steam was the driving force for the formation of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. Many different designs and methods exist for the production of steam. The primary method involves the use of an external heat source providing heat through a boiler wall to water and or steam to vaporize the water and possibly superheat the produced steam.
This method is in wide use with a variety of heat sources including, oil, natural gas, coal, biomass, nuclear and solar energy as heat sources. External heating provides separation of heating from the water/steam but is limited by the thermal and mechanical properties of the boiler walls. Such boilers have lengthy startup periods and an inability to adjust to short term transient events.
Some boilers have been devised to use chemical heat reactions within the boiler to provide additional energy to assist with the generation of steam. Typically reactants such as Magnesium oxide and other similar materials can react with already heated steam to provide additional energy.
The maximum efficiency of a process using steam can be modeled using the Carnot cycle, but maximum efficiency is never reached due to pumping friction losses and heat transfer losses of the boiler and other heat exchangers. An improved new method of rapid generation of high pressure steam would allow steam to be produced to meet our difficult and growing power needs.